Future Classic Women Awards – LPMAM, Geoff Westley And Orphy Robinson

Are you feeling anxious? Online therapy 24. 7 is here to help. We offer confidential support from the comfort of your own sofa. Our highly qualified therapists are experienced in a full range of daily challenges. You'll be in safe and trusted hands. Don't suffer alone. Change your life by calling us on 0207-5535080 and check out our website, onlinetherapy247.com hello and welcome to future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamorte on the women's radio station. This is the first episode of the new year 2021, and I'm very pleased to start it with a very special argument that we're gonna touch today. And that's the launch of a brand new music university in London called London Performing Academy of Music LP Mom. We have two very special guests that are Orfi Robinson and and Jeff Wesley that they're going to be dean of jazz and rhythmos and classical and crossover. Good morning. Good morning. Hi, it's Orfi. Good morning, Orfi. And good morning, Geoff. Yes, I said we clashed. Hello. Very good. Well, we are again in a national lockdown. I mean, this is the third one since the start of this pandemic. And this is why actually, we're going to talk about the London Performing Academy of Music. This is a brand new music conservatory that is going to start online. In a way, we're going back to the origin when universities were made by professors and not by a campus or by being in a specific place. And this will allow us to connect not just during the pandemic, but even later when the pandemic will be over. So we have a very special online platform designed for classical music so that it allows us to perform, sing together, and it's a near zero delay. And that will allow also students from all around the world to be able to study with this incredible faculty of more than 140 renown. Starts in classical, opera, crossover, jazz and rhythmos. So I'm gonna start with Jeff this morning. Jeff, you're gonna be the head of classical and crossover. Would you like to tell the audience what is it? Why is the classical and crossover. It's the first time we hear crossover in the conservatory, isn't it? Yes, indeed. No, this is a good idea in that a lot of musicians today much that they might go into college and university hoping to be classical soloists or orch players in or leading the London Symphony Orchestra. Everybody will achieve that, partly because there's only one chair available, but also because people may have different ambitions. They may decide to, for example, move into chamber music or other forms of music. But a jobbing musician nowadays, orchestral musician, often will find himself spending quite a lot of time on a pop session, on, in a TV orchestra or other situations that are not strictly classical orchestral. And our aim is to introduce all of our classical students to this other non classical culture and allow them to immerse themselves in it, to give them the. The training and the tools to be able to deal with these situations as well as they can when they eventually leave us and go out into the big wide world to make a life for themselves. Absolutely. Well, the thing is, the audience doesn't know, but I'm actually the founder and the president of this new music university, lpmam, and these actually follow a little bit my career. I'm not just a concert pianist or a recording artist. I'm also a radio presenter of the women's radio station with this wonderful program and interviewing artists that are both from classical opera and crossover. I realized, and I know the audience too realized that nowadays you can't just be a musician, that it's an amazing performer. You also need to wear different hats. You need to understand the music industry inside out. And. And we realized that the Conservatoire don't really have the opportunity to offer these type of courses. So crossover is the first new field that we have in the Conservatoire. And Jeff, it's a very special leading artist in the sector. So, Geoff, you actually started as a classical flutist at Royal College of Music? Yes, in fact, yes. I entered the Royal College of Music on a scholarship when I was 18, fully expecting to be an orchestral flute player. And in fact, my teacher was the principal flute with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, so I had something to aim at. But towards the end of my time in college and leaving college, I was playing a lot of piano, I was playing a lot in nightclubs because it was. It earned me some money. And I gradually. And by the age of 23, I was conducting West End musicals and working as musical director for various artists, doing cabaret and pop things. And that sort of led me in a completely different direction, which was a wonderful adventure and with hindsight was the right thing. And I think the same thing, may, same experience may happen to a lot of our students, much as they don't know that yet. Absolutely. And what is incredible, I mean, we're gonna listen to one of your tracks, one of the examples of how your classical training actually went into the crossover. In this case, actually we chose a TR track that is specific for crossing with art. So you made an Arrangement from a ballet from the opera of Anseli Gretto. And you made your own a new ballet. Right. So we're gonna listen to a very special extract from the ballet. But what I wanted to talk about is the fact that in the world of popular music, there is as much work and as much studies and as much deepness as there is in classical specifically. And what we're trying to do, because crossover is the very first bridge that is crossing over to a wider audience, it's a way for us to reach out and to help classical musicians. And it will be the same for jazz as well. From the other department of the LP mam to create a new dialogue within the musicians within the different sectors, breaking the walls with that and then with the different audiences that they might have never been exposed before to classical music. To that example, I chose a track from my very first album that is the Moonlight Sonata. It was the album, my debit album. Bach mods at Beethoven and Chopin. It was all pieces chosen because they were talking about a life turning point for the composer themselves when they composed those specific pieces. And funny enough, it was a turning point for me too. I was living in Seventh Sister. It was a rough street, actually, where I was living. But we had this wonderful house that was completely newly refurbished. And then we found out that it was refurbished because the person who was renting the house before actually burnt it down while growing marijuana. So we had a gang of teenagers, you know, sitting in our front wall and listening to their music on the radio and talking all night. But somehow when I was practicing my piano that was in the front room, they would switch off the radio and listen to me playing. And once I was performing this specific piece and then I had to run out to for a lesson at Royal Academy of Music. And so I finished super fast. The rondo of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, that is really like someone galloping, going past to his lesson. And when I closed the curtain of the living room where I was, where my piano was, I saw there was a little boy, a little black boy, sitting in the step of his front door listening to me. And he. He made the fanbap because he really loved listening to Beethoven as well. So it didn't matter, you know, which age they were or which culture they were from or. They just loved the passion that was in the piece. So we're gonna start today episode of future Classic Women Awards with this piece that is very dear to me. And it's Beethoven moonlight, the third movement. Presto agitato. Sat. Sa. Sam. Sa. It. Sa. Sam. Recording. I mean in that event, I just jumped off on the last chord and went close the curtain and the kids underneath with the thumb up. It was such a funny memory and such a fun piece, isn't it? Certainly is. Really enjoyed that. Arfi, would you like to tell us about you then? Arfi is an MBE and he's gonna be the dean of jazz and rhythmos. We chose rhythmos for a very specific reason. I mean Arfi is a super jazz perform as well and he's the director of the IWARS Academy and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra chair for the IWAR Jazz Committee. I mean afi. Did you ever think when you started your career you would be doing so many other things and not just performing? It's really interesting you should say that because I actually started out as a brass player quite young. Really. I didn't know that. Okay, well, when you play. But I. So I mean, the strange thing is that, you know, I grew up in a family where I thought I should pursue a career in legal studies. So there are lawyers and barristers within my family but also, you know, there are carpenters and all sorts of other careers. So I, I didn't originally think that I would be doing music as a career as such. It was just one of many things that I seem to have had, I used to say a good time but I did quite well from the age of 14 when in lots of compositions competitions. Sorry. And I suppose there was that in the background. But I was also a good sports person as well. Did very well, right up to national standard, representing the UK and things. So, you know, I had a lot of different things going on. However, I do remember when I finally told my parents, I think I'm going to concentrate on music. And this is after leaving college and going and having a full time job doing accounts. Oh wow. And I did quite well at the place that I was, it's called the Hard Rock Cafe. It was obviously a very, very successful place. And I, in fact they encouraged me to go off into, you know, why are you not doing music since you've got all these other things going on? Because it was always there in the background, something happening. And I remember I finally said to my parents, I think I'm gonna try to have a go at, you know, a career in music. And they kind of said, but we always thought you were going to do that. We couldn't understand why you were doing all these other things. Okay. Parents knows better, isn't it? Yeah. So I've been fortunate because obviously I concentrated at a particular suppose influential time in my career and growth on tuned percussion, was fascinated by marimba, vibraphones, all of that sort of side of things, and started to get work which shocked me. Sessions, I became quite in demand, session player. And in fact it's funny because when Jeff was saying about the versatility of musicians, now young musicians, you do have to be versatile. I learned, you know, a very good stage not to just sort of stay in one area because each orchestra only has one person playing that instrument. Ah yes, absolutely. Well, you tell me. I'm a pianist so there is no piano, You know. So I became at a very excellent stage for me, the go to person for tuned percussion on, even on pop records and things. Lots of, you know, I've played on platinum, gold, silver, bronze, credited records. So I, you know, I've been very fortunate in that sort of arena. But when I, you know, when I decided to concentrate on jazz, it was, I suppose, just something driving me towards that ultimately because a lot of the main exponents on the instrument, the vibraphone, were jazz players and they had, you know, excellent technical ability and I had had very, very good training. So, you know, it was always there. It just meant that I then knew a kind of, it was like a driving purpose sort of thing. And again, you know, I was lucky to be in situations that became, I suppose, in the history of jazz as well in this country. So a musician at a certain time in the 1980s, Courtney Pine, biggest selling artist he was for jazz in this country, but also internationally. And that took me all around the world, but also showed me possibilities as well. And I was able to play with some of the top musicians on the planet, which was fantastic as well. So you really did have to have your, I suppose, your things together, as they say. And which led to my own offer of being signed to Blue Note Records, which was the top jazz label in the world. One of the first people from the UK to ever be signed to that label. So that was also a big responsibility. But it also opened up a lot of different fantastic opportunities as well. But through all of this I'd always had my hand in education, so to speak. So I was always trying to be involved in community projects and you know, master classes around the world. You know, I've done them in, you know, Canada as well, the States, you know, in a lot of different places. And I found that I really enjoyed that side and I always kind of looked back and thought because I had some fantastic mentors as well as a youngster that really kind of made you aware again of, you know, the disciplines involved in becoming a musician and also to kind of maintain certain standards and things as well. I think I was just. I just had the right people at the right time, but I think I always looked around at a lot of the kind of conservatoire courses and various things and thought that they had holes in them. And then a lot of discussions when you're touring or, you know, session worlds, all of that, you know, you kind of have discussions and quite a few of you come out with the same sort of reasons and I suppose different things that could be put in place to make the courses more rounded and to kind of prepare young musicians for the real world. Absolutely. I mean, you too, you have a program at the radio? Yes, I do. I've been fortunate to present on the BBC on Jazz fm, and then I've got a regular one which is a station called Delight Radio. I am the jazz on that station. It's mainly contemporary sort of funky music and soul and all that sort of stuff. But then every Sunday I do 2 hours of a360 look at the kind of world of jazz because there's so many different strands and styles, just like classical music, you know, from baroque to, you know, there's different styles. And this is something that normally in the conservatory is relegated like a tiny department, let's say, like string department, piano department, and then you have jazz department. That's how I actually started when I met you, I wanted to have jazz. I wanted to have to break the walls between the jazz and the classical. And then actually we ended up having a jazz department that is as big as the classical. And it's not just jazz, it's gonna be actually also rhythmos. Would you like to talk about these? Yeah. So the idea was, I suppose in the last five years or so around Europe and even in the States, they've expanded the jazz courses because, you know, nowadays you really. To say you're just a jazz musician can be quite limiting. And it's really, really a case of then you ignoring every style of music that's out there. I'm a jazz musician, but for 11 years I've toured with Nigel Kenzie, classical musician. So, you know, I do quite a lot of different things. So, you know, it's. The idea was to then go, okay, you know, I tend to. Well, I was doing outside examiner for one of the academies and looking at the performances and, you know, the gradings and everything else for degrees. And I realized that at various times there were musicians, young musicians, that were doing particular, you know, jazz studies. But they had other things to them. And I looked at that and in particular, you know, we have now the Canny Masons family who are, you know, the seven, I think seven in that family. And there was a family before that had two, a black family who are two phenomenal cellists. But they are known around the world as chora players. And that's Tunde Jegire and his sister Maya, who's one of the biggest selling African artists. I mean I met them when they were doing bark doubles and things. Purcell when I think Maya was 7 or 8 and Tim D was 13, 14, something like that. You know, really talented families. Funnily enough, Tundi Jegire had a Chinike orchestra before chinike. 10 years before that he had an orchestra which was mainly young black performers playing classical music. But then he went off and did his career and you know, became very well known doing other things. But so I looked at this opportunity and thought, well, we're not just going to do a jazz. There's lots of politics around that word anyway. We tend to feel that it's better to look at a more kind of improvised music kind of structures as well. And the idea was that we could then call upon the contemporary music side of jazz, which is very big. The kind of more avant garde is absolutely huge. And then we also could look at, you know, musics from the Latin world, a lot of different styles. And you know, I was able to, you know, bring on board some fantastic musicians like Omar Puente. From Cuba. From Cuba, who are just unbelievable teachers and musicians. And then also, you know, look at studies from right across Africa. So we have, you know, a big thing at the moment in the last five years or so has been in London in particular, the jazz studies students from a certain background have all played music from West Africa. A fellow Kuti style of music. Well, I brought on board Fellocouti's MD so that we could get it right. Because the other thing was that there tended to be a lot of. In a lot of instances that I would see, I would see people teaching music forms that were being second hand and I think. But you do realize there's somebody in that town that's actually from that place who plays that on a world stage. Why are they not being utilized? So we utilizing them, you know, we have great different departments covering all the different instruments and all the different disciplines right across. So you know, jazz is just one of the things and rhythmos really was to go with rhythmic music which they use in quite a lot now, a lot of departments. Because it then means you can cover all of these different styles, lots of different styles, and not kind of, you know, if people just come and they see jazz, there's a tendency to think you're doing one style of jazz in the 1920s or 30s or 40s or whatever it is. That's not us. We're not doing that. The idea is to prepare you for the real world and to give you as much opportunities as possible. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you know, I'd like to. To stress on these, that the London Performing Academy of Music is gonna be the true home to the classical music in the 21st century. So all these different rhythmos, these different jazz, we're gonna be talking about the classical music and contemporary music from Africa and India, the African jazz, the Caribbean heritage music, among others. So we're really gonna create a new music conservatoire that is more a sort of a universe in itself of the. What becomes now the classical music of the 21st century. Funny enough, I was just watching a movie the other day on television, Star Trek Beyond. I have a passion for these things now. And they were playing a piece from the Beastie Boys, and he was saying, the doctor from Star Trek was saying, ah, we're playing classical music because Star Trek is supposed to be in the year, not sure in which year, but, you know, thousand years from now. And so it is. That's what it is, isn't it? The jazz that was made at the beginning of the last century has been going on and became standards. And standards means really classical of the jazz technique and the base for developing it as well. So it has the name jazz, but really it's going to be all the modern classical music in a way. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I was fortunate to see firsthand classical musicians opening out from a lot of disciplines that had been put in place in order to become fantastic players, a lot of orchestras. But then we would go into other circumstances where it was, okay, we're going off to a jam session, we're going off dinner, you know, you can contribute. And there would be a lot of sort of, I can't really do that. That's not my discipline. It's really about reading off the paper. And, you know, you know, the idea is to kind of have that real sort of crossover whereby you can do Latin studies, you can do Brazilian studies, you can do all the different strands of jazz. Even, you know, a big part of this is looking at. When you look at our vocal department, I mean, you know, There are world, you know, world renowned, renowned vocalists there who might be known for one thing, like Gary Hines from Sounds of Blackness. Sounds of Blackness is the go to gospel in the world. Legendary. Yeah, yeah. You know, they will do jazz, they will do rock, they will do all different types of things. So it's to kind of say, okay, this is like a 360 look at music. Yeah, as well. So my music has always reflected all sorts of things as well. You know, I, you know, will mix a tango in with, you know, a sort of RB and reggae and all sorts of things as well. The track you're going to play is a real kind of throwback to my origins, whereby I learned lots of Scottish pipe band music. Wonderful. Let's listen to it then. I'm really, you know, eager now to listen to Jigsaw. So it's from your album Reprise. It's from the album When Tomorrow Comes. The album is When Tomorrow Comes. This is Jigsaw Reprise. This is the shortened version. There is a longer version, but, you know, within the confines of the show today, this time in works better for the show. But, yeah, you'll hear a mix of the Scottish thing inside there with jazz sort of fusion sound and everything. I mean. Yeah. And we also have. It's featuring you at the Marine Band, Viper Phone and Roland Sutherland, that is gonna be the head of woodwind for the jazz department. Dudley Phillips, who is an incredible double pass player, is gonna be a professor for us. Not just for that, but also for the electric bus. So he's another. They're both two wonderful examples of casting over from classical to jazz and making something completely new. So let's listen to Jigsaw Reprise by Arfi Robinson. Sa. Sa. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. This was Arthur Robinson with Jigsaw Reprise from his album When Tomorrow Comes with featuring Roland Sutherland at the flute and piccolo pic. Dudley Phillips, double bass. Joe Bashon, piano keys, and Winston Clifford at the drums. Fantastic. So ARF is gonna be the dean of the class jazz and rhythmos at the London Performing Academy of Music, while, as I mentioned, Jeff Wesley is going to be the dean of classical and crossover. Jeff, we don't have much time, unfortunately. This program goes always so fast, but I wanted you to tell us about your experience. I mean, how you ended up touring with the Bee Gees. Working with the Bee Gees and then with Legends from the Pop in Italy. I mean, how a classical flutist end up being, you know, music director for West End musicals. And you also conducted orchestras, you know, London Symphony Orchestra. How do you feel Being such a musician, you know, so well rounded in any direction in a way. What could you say about this? Well, a lot of it came about by accident, but the. Or by destiny. Okay. It was just sort of contacts. I ended up. I was conducting Jesus Christ Superstar in London the first time it was presented many, many decades ago. And that. That show was under the management of Robert Stigwood. And Robert Stigwood was also the manager of the Bee Gees. And so there was a connection between these two offices and through another contact I'd made, who was an agent who phoned me up one morning. I was working in nightclubs till 4 in the morning. And this agent phoned me one morning about nine o', clock, which was an hour that just didn't exist. Yeah. And he said, I might have something for you. I can't tell you what it is, but if I get it, you've got to say yes. And I just wanted to go back to sleep. So I said, yeah, yeah. And he called me back half an hour later. He said, you're the new musical director of the Bee Gees. You go to Japan next Thursday. And it completely changed my life. I mean, not only was I extremely well paid, but it was just opened up a complete new world. Because at that time the Bee Gees were touring with an orchestra. And that was my. That was my job. Everywhere we went, I had to prepare often a new orchestra and I had to do arrangements and, you know, anything to do with that, and then conduct them on the concert. And I stayed with them doing that job for nearly seven years. And it was just a wonderful experience. And in the meantime, I was back in London working as a session player. And I saw that on every pop session there is a producer who tells everybody what to do. And some of these people are really, really good, but some of them really, really aren't. And well, I can do that. And I made friends with a man who at the time was the artistic director with RCA in London. And I just said, you know, if the opportunity arose, I'll be the producer. And a few months later he called me and he said, do you fancy producing an Italian? I just said, well, Italian, Serbo, Croat, Japanese, South African, who cares? And he organized this meeting and I ended up making an album with this artist called Lucia Battisti, who is hugely famous in Italy. It's John Lennon and Bob Dylan for the Italian. And the album I did ended up being his biggest selling album. And that sort of launched me in this market that I never believed that I Never intended to be in. But once I got there, I felt that it really suited me because the Italians have a love for bel canto, for opera, for classical, for orchestra. And working with their artists, I had plenty of opportunity to write for orchestra because the Italians love it. Whereas particularly at that time, if I'd suggested writing orchestra for an English pop artist, they would just laughed me out the door. And that's very interesting what you say, because, I mean, we miss today the third dean of the university, this Giancariazzo Genzarolli, that set up an incredible opera department where we're going to be the home of the bel canto in the uk because this is really the basis for opera from any style of opera. And I loved what you said. I mean, we're going to interview Gian Galeazzo in a different episode with Chiara Daniel, that's going to be the nominee for future Classic Women awards. She's gonna be opera professor for the London Performing Academy of Music. But I loved what you said that you didn't care where the artist came from. In music, there is something very important that everyone needs to know. We don't look at a person for their color of their skin, their culture or their sex or anything else. We really just look at the artist. And music, I think, is the very first language that open up towards diversity and inclusion. Because we don't see anything else but music, isn't it? Absolutely, absolutely, yes. No, that's a very good observation. So. Well, I'd like to listen now to a piece that he sent me actually the other day. My daughter recognized it straight away. So I'm not gonna say the title I want to play first. But that's about your collaboration with an American Ballet Company. That's right. This is a project that must be 15 years ago or more. Now, I was asked by this American company to they. They're a ballet company, an ice ballet company, in fact. And they wanted to perform Hansel and Gretel as a ballet, a full length two act ballet, but it only exists written as an opera with voices. And I had the job of rewriting this opera and incorporating all of the vocal melodies into the orchestra. By giving these melodies to instruments in the orchestra and then making whatever adjustments were necessary. And I also had to cut and paste the whole thing because I had meetings with the choreographers who were saying to me things like, okay, now this is the scene where the children come into the square. We want 20 seconds. And this is the scene where something else happens. That's a minute And a half. And so. So I had to reorganize the score. We followed more or less the story, but at one point they wanted to give the witch in the story because, you know, it's about two children lost in the wood and they meet a bad witch who wants to eat them. And in order, because this valley was intended for children mainly, they wanted to introduce a new character. And they gave the witch a cat, a cat who was very naughty cat who played lots of very unpleasant tricks on people, but also had some fun. And so one of the things that they wanted to do was to give the cat some dances. And so I had to orchestrate for this wonderful orchestra. I had an orchestra of 80 in air studios. It's just magic. And I had to orchestrate Three Blind Mice and Teddy Bear's Picnic. And for me, it was one of the pinnacles of my career because I've always loved the Teddy Bear's Picnic. It's the most won song and to have at my disposal 80 fabulous orchestral musicians to write for. And this is. This is the result. So I hope. Let's listen to the Teddy Bears Picnic as arranged by Jeff Wesley. Sa. Yeah, how fun. That was really beautiful. I mean, Jeff is incredible. I heard other unexpected. Arrangements, for example, of the Christmas Carol for orchestra. And I love that the one we. Next year, next Christmas, we're gonna definitely play your version of singing it. You made it for another singer, I think. I don't remember you told me which singer it was, but you recorded the. The voice for it. And it sounds fantastic. And it was a good fun project, definitely. Well, you'll hear more of it, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Well, the thing is, as you can see, music is everything. And it cannot be put in a box of be put in confined walls has to go. And that's the thing that inspires and make our days brighter and our lives better, isn't it? And that's what we want to do with the London Performing Academy of Music. We really want to create a unique new environment where we can shape the future of classical music and push it into the 21st century. The applications are now open, so Visit the website www.or write to infolpimam.com and we look forward to welcoming you at LPMAM. And I would like to say a special thanks to Howard, the founder, Howard Johnson, the founder of the women's radio station, and Russell for the men's radio station for letting us having this very special episode. And of course, a very special thank you thanks to Jeff and Arfi for the wonderful music played today. And if you have any questions that you would like to ask our guest or nomination for our future Classic Women Awards, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com or tweet us @womensradiostn. A big thanks again to everyone for the beautiful music play today and our warmest wishes of the 2021 Full of Music and joy from all of us at women's radio station. Are you feeling anxious? Online therapy 24. 7 is here to help. We offer confidential support from the comfort of your own sofa. Our highly qualified therapists are experienced in a full range of daily challenges. You'll be in safe and trusted hands. Don't suffer alone. Change your life by calling us on 0207-55-350 80 and check out our website onlinetherapy247.com. Sam. Sa.